Dear Readers,
I was in Chandernagore in November for some talks at Sri Ramakrishna Sri Aurobindo Niloy, Barasat. In that centre of the great Spiritual Masters, I chanced upon a very old publication of Motilal Roy's book: My Life's Partner. Knowing the relation between Sri Aurobindo and Motilal Roy, I turned the pages to see if the author has written anything on Sri Aurobindo. And I found a treasure trove of memories: Motilal recounting his first encounter with Sri Aurobindo on the night of his arrival at Chandernagore.

I was amazed to read the details of Sri Aurobindo's first days in hiding at Chandernagore. We can see already the future Sri Aurobindo of late Pondicherry days in the early 1910: the true Gita –yogin who had achieved by then the samata of the Gita. He was unaffected by the extreme physical discomforts of the narrow room in the house of Motilal Roy; he was calm and deeply inwards even in the most adverse and critical conditions which threatened his stay in the town.

The farewell description given by Motilal Roy is indeed very touching:
"I eagerly bowed to his feet. He held me to his breast as on the day of his last farewell. The one was a meeting that established me into his grace; the other, to end in eternal separation. The impression of his touch, however, indicated no difference to me in either case. "I must get going. We shall meet again."
His eyes were suffused with tears, as far as I could see. He laid his hand on my head and said, "You will be fulfilled. Stick to your sadhana do not worry. You have gone a step up, and will go further."

…Ah, why did the four eyes unite in an un-wavering gaze that day! The sight was painful for both; the haze of intervening half-light grew denser and denser. I turned my face homeward with a sigh. … I sank upon my bed in tears and perhaps fell asleep under the affectionate sweeps of a guiltless hand down my body. In the morning I got up to see a new sun."
And I could not resist borrowing the whole chapter (though with some deletions to suit New Race) and publish it in this volume of our journal for the benefit of our readers.

Of course, there are other articles by other authors who have tried to reflect to the best of their capacity the light of the Master.
Do read the comment by the Mother on Rabindranath Tagore—it reveals the spiritual level of Tagore's consciousness—which, as we realize after reading his poems, gets reflected in all his poetry.

Wish you a happy reading…and may be a bit tearful too as was the case with our proofreader on reading the first article!
Ananda Reddy